If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me?
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Shishio and Yumi meet, although not on the best of terms. They end up learning each other's stories and, despite her intention not to, Yumi finds herself falling in love. Also includes young Sojiro cuteness! NOW COMPLETE
1. The First Words He Ever Said To Her

**DISCLAIMER: Rurouni Kenshin belongs to Nobuhiro Watsuki.**

"_I know it's mad, but if I go to Hell  
Will you come with me or just leave?  
I know it's mad, but if the world were ending  
Would you kiss me or just leave me?_" - Panic! At The Disco, "Do You Know What I'm Seeing?"

-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --

"Just watch the kid for me, while I go enjoy myself."

Those were the first words Makoto Shishio ever spoke to Yumi Komagata. And, truth be told, she was a little offended. Not by the way he spoke to her or the even words themselves, but she was offended that he had singled her out as the child's babysitter and picked one of the other (_plainer, less experienced_) young women to be his companion for the night. Not that she particularly _wanted_ the job of pleasuring a man who looked like a living mummy... but still, being the one who was ordered to watch the child struck a nerve.

Watching the boy wasn't a difficult task. The child just sat beside her quietly with a dumb smile on his face. Yumi didn't ask his name and he didn't offer it, so she ended up just calling him "boy" - both in her mind and out loud.

A small eternity passed.

Yumi slipped the pocket watch - the watch that she usually only used for timing her... business transactions - out of her kimono sleeve and checked the time. Had it really only been five mintues?

She tucked the watch away again, and sighed.

The boy turned his head and looked at her curiously.

"Is something wrong, nee-san?" the child asked, that insipid smile still firmly in place.

"My name is Yumi," she ground out through gritted teeth. She didn't know what it was about the boy, but for some odd reason he irritated her to no end.

"Is something wrong, Yumi-san?" he tried again, this time using her name instead of the generic term for an older-sister-type person.

She flashed him a fake smile, as fake as - or perhaps even faker than - the one the boy himself was wearing, and said, "No, nothing's wrong."

But something _was_ wrong.

Not a full minute had passed after Yumi's declaration that nothing was wrong when they heard a piercing scream from the other end of the building. It was a woman's voice, and it was _not_ a sound of pleasure.

"_Boy! Stay right here_."

Yumi was already up and running toward the source of the disturbance when she snapped out the command. The child, who had started to stand up with his hand on his sword, slumped back down into a sitting position. Yumi hadn't noticed before that (nor did she now take even a moment to wonder _why_) the boy had a sword.

The sliding door rattled in its tracks as Yumi opened it with more force than was necessary. The scene inside the room almost made Yumi want to laugh - almost.

The terrified young "companion" had retreated to a corner of the room and was now crying quietly, still half-undressed.

Shishio had pulled his kimono back on over his mostly-unraveled bandages but was just standing there with a shell-shocked expression on his face. True, he hadn't made a good impression on Yumi earlier, but what was visible of his skin forced her to worry for his well-being despite whatever qualms she might have regarding his personality.

She put her hand on his elbow - his left, the one that he'd actually put through the sleeve - and he allowed her guide him out of the room and back through the hallway to the front room where they collected the boy, and on down another hallway to another room.

"This is my personal room," she informed them, as the two settled themselves. "Please stay here. I'm going to get a doctor."

"For her?" Shishio inquired, meaning his "companion" whose name he'd already forgotten.

Yumi was already halfway out the door and didn't turn around when she answered.

"No, for _you_."

The door slid shut behind her.

-to be continued-

**A/N: ****In case you couldn't tell, Sojiro is still really young here. Maybe about a year has passed since he joined up with Shishio.**

**Reviews are love. Flames, however... well, flames are fire... and I like fire. So please review, even if you have nothing good to say.**


	2. The Disturbing Child's Hidden Smile

-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --

"No, for _you_."

The door slid shut behind her.

Shishio wasn't quite sure what to make of her. Why would a woman like her go out of her way to help a man like him, especially when she seemed to care so little for her fellow whore's well-being?

Then again, the boy had spent more time in that woman's company than Shishio himself had...

"Sojiro, what do you think of that woman?" he asked.

"Shishio-san, I don't think Yumi-san likes me very much," Sojiro replied cheerfully. His smile slipped a little as he said it. He wanted her to like him. People were so much easier to get along with when they liked him than when they didn't.

_So, her name is Yumi._

It wasn't a particularly useful piece of information. Then again, neither was the observation that she didn't seem to like Sojiro. Most of the people they encountered thought the boy was just plain stupid. And the few who saw past the facade of his fake smile generally found him very disturbing.

"Was she mean to you?" Shishio probed.

"No," Sojiro answered. "But she wasn't _nice_, either. She pretty much ignored me the whole time, and became irritated when I spoke to her," he elaborated.

"Hm."

Silence fell between them as Shishio contemplated the possible motivations and intentions of the woman named Yumi.

He did not have long to ponder such thoughts, though, because only a scant few minutes after his conversation with Sojiro ended, the door slid open and Yumi entered along with a rather frail-looking old man, who - he assumed - must be the doctor.

The old man's gaze flicked to Sojiro.

"Perhaps the child should be taken somewhere else, for the time...?" the doctor suggested tentatively, in a quavering voice.

Yumi sighed. "Come here, boy."

Sojiro looked to Shishio for confirmation. At Shishio's slight nod, Sojiro rose to his feet and obediently trotted over to where Yumi was waiting.

She noticed that the boy seemed a bit wary of her. He hung back a little, not wanting to come _too_ close to her. Perhaps she should have made an effort to be more pleasant in the way she treated him before? He was only a child, after all...

"Come on," she said, and Shishio was surprised to hear the gentle tone in her voice.

Yumi held out her hand, and Sojiro came forward to take it. She watched a real smile spread over the child's face as his small fingers were enclosed in her palm.

-to be continued-

**A/N: looks like I couldn't keep it contained in two chapters, after all.**

**Reviews are love. Flames, however... flames will smolder within me like the fires of Hell waiting to be released. So please review, even if you have nothing good to say.**


	3. Shishio Learns His Burned Body's Limits

-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --

After a long examination, the doctor informed Shishio that most of his sweat glands had been destroyed and as a result of that, Shishio's body had lost the ability to regulate his internal temperature. Shishio wouldn't be able to fight - or do any other activity involving vigorous exercise - for more than fifteen minutes at time without risking further damage to his body, caused by overheating.

Shishio took a moment to digest that information before asking the question that he really wanted to know the answer to.

"What about sex?"

The old man wasn't surprised by the question, considering where they were and all...

"It will be more dangerous for the woman than it is for you," the doctor answered. "Because of your abnormally high body temperature and your inability to produce sweat, if you aren't careful your companion will be very uncomfortable throughout the process, or may even become injured or burned."

So, his unnaturally warm flesh - made hotter in the heat of passion - could _burn_ the woman he engaged in intimate activities with? Well, that was inconvenient.

Finishing fights in fifteen minutes? He could handle that. He probably wouldn't ever even meet an enemy he needed more than fifteen minutes to defeat. But not being able to have sex? He didn't know how he could possibly live without it. It was a basic biological impulse, after all.

"Are you almost finished?" Yumi's impatient voice came from the other side of the sliding door, interrupting Shishio's silent musings.

Before the doctor scraped his thoughts together into a coherent answer, the door slid open and Yumi slipped inside. Sojiro was in her arms, fast asleep. Thirty-five pounds of adorable dead weight slumped against her shoulder, snoring softly.

"Please continue. Don't mind us," she said, her tone somewhere between cold and sarcastic, as she shut the door behind her. Shishio watched as she crossed the room and settled the sleeping child on her futon. Her personal futon - the one she actually slept on - not the spare bedding on which she conducted her... business transactions.

"We were just about finished here, anyway," the doctor muttered, taking a fresh roll of bandages out of his medical bag. "Just need to get you bandaged up, then..."

Shishio wasn't sure whether the doctor was actually speaking to _him_, or if the old man was just talking to himself.

Yumi watched as the ancient doctor tried to apply the bandage with arthritic, fumbling hands.

"Oh, here! Let me do it," she snapped, losing patience.

-to be continued-

**Reviews are love. Flames, however... well, let's just say I have my own secret sword technique for dealing with those. So please review, even if you have nothing good to say.**


	4. Getting To Know Each Other a Little More

-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --

As Yumi began to wrap the bandages - starting at Shishio's feet and working her way up - the doctor slipped out of the room.

"He's leaving without being paid?" Shishio asked curiously, once the old man was gone.

"Oh, he'll take his payment, alright..." Yumi replied with a sarcastic smirk. "From his favorite girl."

Well, this _was_ a brothel, after all. And since the girls had no money of their own, the doctor was compensated for his services with _their_ services.

Out loud, he commented, "Which obviously isn't _you_." Just to see what she would say.

"He doesn't like dealing with me," Yumi said, and this time the smirk accompanying her words was an odd combination of smug and playful.

"I'm sure he would enjoy it it more if you didn't make it so difficult for him," Shishio said. Because it had quickly become obvious that she was a difficult woman.

"How did this happen, anyway?" Yumi changed the subject, tapping her fingers lightly against the charred flesh of his thigh.

Shishio related the story of who and what he'd been during the revolution and of how he'd become what he was now. He was about to tell her about how Sojiro had joined him when-

"You'll have to stop talking now, so I can do your face."

He complied, wondering if she'd been listening at all or had only asked him about his wounds to distract him from the previous subject.

He was interested to see that her expression was one of concentration - with no visible trace of disgust - as she carefully applied the bandages to his face and head.

"There," she said, tying off the last bandage. "You can talk again now." When he didn't immediately respond, she prompted him, "You said you were being hunted by the police when you met the boy...?"

Ah, so she _had_ been listening after all. And what's more, she actually seemed interested in hearing the rest of it.

Shishio stood for a moment to put on his kimono. When he sat back down, Yumi moved to sit beside him - so they were no longer in the awkwardly close face-to-face position that they'd been in while she'd been applying the bandages.

He glanced at her. She seemed to be waiting for him to speak. So he continued the tale of his travels from where he'd left off.

"And that's how we ended up here," Shishio concluded his long-winded explanation.

And, not a moment after he'd finished speaking, he felt Yumi's head drop onto his shoulder. He looked down at her and realized - with a slight sense of disappointment - that she was not getting cuddly with him. She had fallen asleep.

-to be continued-

**Reviews are love. Flames, however... flames are fire. And when they're on your pants, you're a liar. So please review, even if you have nothing good to say.**


	5. Every Ending Brings A New Beginning

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out, but I wanted the final chapter to be absolutely perfect. Yes, this is the final chapter.**

-- If I Go To Hell, Will You Come With Me? --

Yumi woke up disoriented. It was dark - the middle of the night. She was sitting up rather than lying down, and she seemed to be leaning against something very - _unnaturally_ - warm.

"Are you awake?" a low rough voice drawled, the arm that had been draped casually across her shoulders falling away.

And the previous evening's events all came rushing back to her.

Her body shivered at the sudden loss of his warmth and she moved to lean against him again. Shishio allowed it. He was surprised - maybe even confused - by her reaction, and watched curiously as she drifted back to sleep. She seemed to trust him, at least. Even if she wasn't attracted to him. Well, most women (or perhaps even _all_ women) wouldn't be attracted to a man who looked like he did now.

_Wait_. Following the path his thoughts were currently taking... _Do I **want** her to be attracted me?_ he wondered incredulously. He would admit that he was fascinated by this woman's strange actions and reactions, but that was only because she didn't adhere to the normal code of expected female behavior... right?

He sighed, pushing the thought to the back of his mind, and settled into a restless sleep.

Morning came and went. Shishio and Sojiro both woke early but were at a loss as for what to do. (Once Sojiro was up, Shishio moved Yumi to the bed.) Should they just leave? No. The red light district was still slow and sleepy at this time of day but the rest of the town would be waking up and going about their business, and Shishio was still a fugitive from the police - although they had mostly given up on finding him at this point in time.

But honestly, he wasn't afraid of being caught by the police. He was just making excuses to stay a little while longer.

It was noon before Yumi woke, and late afternoon by the time she'd made herself presentable and the three of them ventured out of her room into the central area of the brothel house.

When Shishio went to leave, the timid "companion" from the night before (he still couldn't remeber the girl's name) insisted that he at least stay long enough to have a meal before he left - since he never got his money's worth from her.

Around this time, customers began to trickle in. The timid girl was called away to do business before Shishio's food was served, and it was Yumi who ended up waiting on him instead. Not that either of them were particularly displeased with this turn of events.

She was sitting quietly beside him while Shishio and Sojiro ate, when a rather unpleasant-looking but very obviously rich man barged in and demanded her companionship.

"I'm sorry," Yumi replied lightly, with a pleasant smile. "But I'm already sold for the night." After saying so, she leaned against Shishio's side and laid her head on his shoulder, making it obvious who she had been sold to. The other man eyed Shishio with distaste, but left without making anything out of it. Once he was gone, Yumi moved a respecatable distance away from Shishio again.

"Why would you do that?" Shishio asked, regarding her curiously. "Lie, I mean?" he clarified. "You are under no obligation to take care of me and I was planning on leaving before nightfall anyway... And even though we both know I didn't get my money's worth last night, I can't afford _you_." He stopped speaking abruptly as the answer occurred to him. _She obviously doesn't **enjoy** being a whore, and my presence here provided a convenient excuse for her to turn the customer down_. Out loud he said, "If you hate this life so much, why don't you run away?"

"To where?" she asked bitterly. "Back to my family, the ones that sold me in the first place? To the streets, where I would likely end up only being able to do the same thing I'm doing here, but in less comfort and with no assurance that I'll live to see the next day?"

"Why don't you run away... with me?"

And for some reason that she didn't understand at the time, she accepted.

It would be quite awhile yet before she figured out that she'd fallen in love.

-end-

**Reviews are love. Flames, however, flames are fire. You shouldn't give fire to a pyro. Do so at your own risk. So please review, even if you have nothing good to say.**


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